Everything was quiet around Andreas Scheuer. Now, surprisingly, the former Federal Minister of Transport has left the Bundestag.

Former Federal Transport Minister Scheuer, here at the Bavarian Parliament's commission of inquiry into main routes Photo: Sven Hoppe

MUNICH taz | Two characters will be remembered in relation to Andreas Scheuer. One is still funny: it's 10,000. This is how Scheuer, as general secretary of the CSU, received the political Ash Wednesday in Passau Dreiländerhalle. When it was pointed out to him that, for fire safety reasons, not even 5,000 people were allowed into the room, he quickly declared that the usual audience at the table was “what seemed like ten thousand people,” a term that entered the almost official vocabulary of the CSU.

The other figure, which is the least fun, comes from his time as Transport Minister, which he held in Merkel's last cabinet. It amounts to no less than 243 million. This is the amount in euros that the CSU's adventure with the toll cost taxpayers.

Although the toll itself was the work of Scheuer's predecessor, Alexander Dobrindt, and the then head of the CSU, Horst Seehofer, the compensation payment was due to the fact that Scheuer had concluded the operator contracts without waiting for a decision from the Court of Justice of the European Communities. This finally killed the entire project in 2019. Since then, Scheuer's reputation has been more than tarnished and he barely found support within his own party. He even received boos during Political Ash Wednesday. To Scheuer it must have seemed like ten thousand.

Unknown next destination

Now the Bavarian from Lower Bavaria, who will celebrate his 50th birthday in the autumn, has finally ended his political career. After having announced at the beginning of the year that he would no longer run in the next federal elections, on Monday he announced that he was immediately resigning from his mandate, surprising even friends of the party: “It was an honor for me to be able to work for our country and for my country”. Scheuer did not comment on his motives or the question of where he is headed now after 22 years in the Bundestag.

The fact that Scheuer was able to move to the political front line is mainly due to Seehofer, who initially described him as a scoundrel who had to do an internship first. However, Scheuer later continued to live up to the rogue image with uncontrolled statements and actions. The phrase “Lampedusa must not become a suburb of Kiefersfelden” dates back to Scheuer.

However, this quote caused much more of a stir: “Sorry for the language: the worst thing is a Senegalese soccer player altar boy who has been there for more than three years. Because they will never deport him again.” The wording is beyond discussion, but it also summarizes the principle of Christian Social immigration policy, according to which the much sought-after integration should be avoided, at least for unrecognized immigrants. refugees, so as not to create an obstacle to deportation.

Appointment with the far right

Also causing a stir was the visit of a small CSU delegation led by Scheuer to the highly controversial Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, almost a year ago. “The governor's solid strategic and foreign policy assessments highlight transatlantic cooperation,” the CSU politician later wrote on Twitter about the Republican, who, for example, applies strongly homophobic policies in his state.

Until Scheuer announces his future career plans, one can of course happily speculate: Will he be offered a lucrative position at a Bavarian car company? Is the self-confessed transatlantic, whose partner works as a lobbyist for Facebook, attracted to an American employer? Is the classic car lover now opening a second-hand store in Passau? Or will Scheuer, who became a father for the second time a few months ago, go on paternity leave? On Tuesday afternoon, the news portal “Business Insider” was already following a lead: if the documents from the commercial register were examined, Scheuer had already founded two companies two weeks ago, which suggests that he worked as a management consultant.

For the CSU, its departure from the Bundestag is definitely a loss in at least one respect: Since Scheuer entered Parliament as a direct candidate in the 2021 federal election, despite a large vote loss, there is no substitute. The national group is shrinking.